Cleveland Browns Wiretap

"It's all about being in the right situation at the right time," Griffin said Thursday after he was named the starter for Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. "My job is to make sure that this is the right situation and the right time."

Hue Jackson also said it's important to see Griffin so the Browns can garner more information before deciding if they should bring him back in 2017.

Joe Thomas has been mentioned in trade rumors for the past two years, but Hue Jackson says the Cleveland Browns aren't moving the left tackle.

"That's not happening or I'm going with him, okay?" Jackson said. "I guarantee you that. I'm going with him. No, Joe Thomas means too much to this organization and to this football team. As I said to everybody, I want us to do right by him. Right by that is let's go get this man some wins. He deserves that.

"He deserves to be on a winning football team and have a chance to chase playoffs and championships. That's why you're here. ... We have to get this thing right for those guys because it's truly what it is about -- our fans, our organization -- but those players, they give a lot and we have to give it back to them."

The Cleveland Browns have been in a perpetual search for a quarterback, starting 26 different players at the position since 1999.

Cleveland traded away the second overall pick that became Carson Wentz to the Philadelphia Eagles for an extra first rounder in 2017 and extra second rounders in 2017 and 2018.

“We always look back on our decisions,” Sashi Brown said when asked about passing on Wentz. “You try to be as thorough as possible going in, and as humble as possible coming out. Are there things we could have, and should have, done differently? That said, we really like the decision we made. I think it’s dangerous to start evaluating decisions once you have information you didn’t have going into them. And our trade, really, hasn’t even borne all its fruits.”

Ben Roethlisberger, who said earlier this season that he was "really surprised" the Cleveland Browns didn't draft Carson Wentz with the second overall pick, took it one step further on Wednesday.

"I thought for sure he was going to Cleveland," Roethlisberger said. "There was not a doubt in my mind that he wasn't a perfect AFC North quarterback, a great fit for you guys and everything. Then when everything transpired, I was blown away by it, but you never know.

"It's early in his career. You hate to jump to conclusions and call him the same thing as me, who has been in the league for 13 years, but only time will tell if that same thing kind of happened there, too."

Roethlisberger and Wentz share an agent. The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback admits that he's still fueled by being passed over by the Browns at No. 6 in 2004.

Hue Jackson wants to ease the pressure he's placed on Cody Kessler, whom he benched in the third quarter of Thursday night's 28-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

"Cody has done some good things, too," Jackson said. "Maybe we've been a little too harsh on him that way. He's made some jumps in some areas."

Jackson noted on Wednesday that Kessler has had a revolving door on the offensive line and didn't have receiver Corey Coleman until the last two weeks.

"He's playing with a cast of players that he's starting to get familiar with and they are getting familiar with him," Jackson said. "That's just work in progress. Young quarterbacks grow at different rates."

The Cleveland Browns remain winless and Hue Jackson's decision to bench Cody Kessler in their loss at Baltimore has "heightened tension between the front office and coaching staff."

Defensive coordinator Ray Horton is facing a very uncertain future, with his unit allowing more than 30 points per game.

Owner Jimmy Haslam, along with his wife Dee, has become increasingly hands on, with many departments essentially reporting directly to his family. It was Haslam who ultimately decided to hire Jackson and sign off on Horton as coordinator, despite strong reservations expressed by others.

Haslam has fired three coaches and general managers in the past four years and has blown up his front office repeatedly, fluctuating from one organizational structure to the next.

"You basically have a husband and wife in charge of various areas they don't really understand -- football, coaching, scouting, analytics, ticketing, marketing," a team source said. "And that's the way they want it."

The Cleveland Browns are sticking with Cody Kessler at quarterback, but Hue Jackson says changes need to be made to the offense.

Kessler has thrown 16 passes of more than 20 yards in his six starts and has completed just four of them.

"Are you asking do I want to see the ball go down the field more? Yes, I do. It needs to," Jackson said. "That's the way we score more points. Cody's done a good job of distributing the ball and he's done a good job of putting the ball in the right places for the most part, but he knows now that in the NFL you have to take a few more chances to score points because the defenses are too good. We have to always stay aggressive and push the ball when we can because it gives us a chance to have big plays and make big plays."

A week after declaring that the Cleveland Browns would go 8-0 the rest of the way, Chris Kirskey promises that the team will win at some point this season.

"We're not going to go 0-16,'' he said after Sunday's 35-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. "That's for a fact. We're not doing that. Things are going to get on a roll, and we've just got to keep fighting."